Intersectoral Migration in Venezuela

This article describes the flow of labor resources from agriculture to other sectors of the economy and examines factors that determine the rate of migration, concentrating on the period 1960-1997. The topic is of special interest in Venezuela because of the country's poor economic performance and abundant natural resources. Researchers have noted a tendency for resource-abundant countries to grow more slowly than resource-poor countries. Several explanations for this phenomenon are reviewed. There is, however, no direct theoretical relationship between resource abundance and growth. Rather, the attention devoted to the resource-abundant countries stems from the fact that the fortunes of the resource-based sectors are determine largely by the world markets.